Reflection and Analysis

Bleach - Live Action (9/14/18)

Having finished watching the live action Bleach movie, I found myself quite impressed.

One of the first things I wish to address in my reflection comes down is I suspect some fans of Bleach who aren't fond of the movie will attempt to discredit said movie by saying the movie isn't canon because it's not the Manga; however, fans need to remember Bleach canon isn't just comprised of the material released in the Manga, but is everything created by Tite Kubo. There is no getting around the fact Tite Kubo had a major hand in the production of this movie, yet the film stays true to the canon roots.

Characters

Orihime

Here is one place I feel certain fans will be disappointed. On one side, Orihime is presented in the movie as one of Ichigo's inner circle of friends. However, the film also strips Orihime's character down to her obsession with Ichigo. Gone are her quirky cooking habits and wild imagination which caused many of us to fall in love with her in the first place; the part that's left – the obsession with Ichigo – is what made many of us fall out of love with her due to the fact her obsession became super annoying.

Her character in the film is stripped of her entire background story. Her brother doesn't appear at all in the film thus leaving the only place where her sob story of having abusive parents she can't even remember in the Manga and the Fullbringer arc. By stripping Sora out of the narrative, her sob story simply becomes something Orihime heard about, yet gone as well is the story behind her hairpins which tie into the powers she gets in the series.

Speaking of powers, they've not awakened at all. The awakening of Orihime's powers was another reason fan fell in love with her character at first with how she protected Tatsuki. For those unfamiliar with the canon material, Tatsuki is the girl Orihime is hanging out with who is encouraging her to pursue Ichigo. On the positive side of that, at least Tatsuki isn't encouraging Orihime to lure Ichigo into an alleyway and take advantage of him.

Reducing Orihime down to her crush effectively presents her more in the light of a creepy stalker. Specifically, she's the classmate which shows up in many Shounen series who obsesses over the guy and attempts being a part of his inner circle yet never really is. Even her comment about laughing at Ichigo's grumpy face is creepy, particularly if one knows the source material and knows Orihime wants to chase the rain away; rain is figuratively what makes him grumpy, and she wants to be the one to make him smile.

She also comes across as a complete ditz. One of the saving graces for her character-wise was the fact we're shown she is the top three of her class, yet even this was stripped away from her character. As such in the first movie this became far more prevalent, and she wasn't as likable of a character as she was in the Manga or Anime at this point. Also, if her constant Kurosaki-kun annoyed you before, they're likely to annoy you again.

Am I bothered by this? No, because when I re-examined the Manga series ever since it ended, I found myself coming to certain conclusions. One of these conclusions was that the only thing going for Orihime was her crush on Ichigo. Another was that she had a stalker like personality, yet the fact she was a wannabe within Ichigo's group of friends. She was also fairly useless within the series except for a few points.

Tatsuki

Here is my one of my few disappointments with the movie, and yet due to time constraints I'm not surprised it happened. Tatsuki is effectively reduced from Ichigo's childhood friend and the girl who protected Orihime from being bullied to the girl who effectively is simply Orihime and Ichigo's friend.

I'd say simply Orihime's friend if it weren't for the fact she is obviously a part of Ichigo's inner circle, yet unlike Orihime she is able to call Ichigo by his first name whereas Orihime still calls him Kurosaki-kun. This is significant in that it shows Orihime hasn't – despite wanting to – managed to become a part of Ichigo's inner circle of friends. She's the outsider looking in.